User-generated Research Articles

Do Psychological Ownership and Communicative Presence Matter? Examining How User-Generated Content in E-Commerce Live Streaming Influences Consumers' Purchase Intention.

E-commerce live streaming has become a lucrative global industry. As the main carrier to convey information in live broadcasting, user-generated content (UGC)-and especially bullet screens-are crucial in influencing users' purchase intentions. However, the influence of bullet screens' multidimensional information characteristics on consumers' decision-making processes requires further exploration. Additionally, most existing studies start with the short-term effects of live product realization, and must address how to enhance customers' psychological ownership using new means of live streaming marketing to obtain long-term sustainable brand-building effects. This study introduces psychological ownership and the communicative presence as mediating variables based on the theory of elaboration likelihood modeling to explore the mechanism of the influence of UGC's multidimensional features on viewers' purchase intentions in live e-commerce broadcasting rooms. We collected 404 valid online questionnaires and tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling. These findings indicate that UGC emotions, quality, and their interaction significantly and positively affect purchase intentions. Moreover, psychological ownership and the communicative presence mediate UGC's effect on purchase intentions. These results provide a new perspective for understanding consumer behavior in live e-commerce to improve marketing effectiveness of e-commerce live streaming platforms.

Does user-generated video content motivate individuals to visit a destination? A non-visitor typology

Νon-visitors comprise a lucrative but underexplored segment in the tourism literature. This study fills a research gap on non-visitors by proposing a new typology contributing to a better understanding of their travel motivations and intentions to visit or not a destination, after being exposed to user-generated video content online. Semi-structured in-depth interviews facilitated via two tourist videos of Raja Ampat, Indonesia, available on YouTube, were conducted with 31 Indonesians and 30 British non-visitors. Findings indicate the presence of five types of non-visitors based on travel motivations: neophiles, nationalists, narcissists, volunteers, and reluctant non-goers. The study contributes to a better understanding of non-visitors’ motivations across different cultures and sheds some light on how user-generated video content shapes visit intentions among those who have never visited a destination. In practical terms, the study offers prudent knowledge on enhancing the possibility that non-visitors will turn into goers.

Beyond static rankings: A tourist experience-driven approach to measure destination competitiveness

In the dynamic field of destination management, maintaining a destination's competitiveness requires understanding the evolving preferences of tourists. However, current research often adopts a static approach, failing to capture the dynamic nature of tourist needs and the evolving competitiveness of a destination. To address this, we introduce a novel approach using user-generated content from various social media platforms over a six-year period to assess key attributes that influence destination competitiveness. The results indicate that attributes in deciding destination competitiveness are not fixed, with some remaining stable factors in competitiveness, while others fluctuate over time. Attributes that even alter their competitive standing could significantly impact overall destination competitiveness. This research contributes a dynamic model that allows destination managers to adapt strategies in real time, aligning with current market conditions and enhancing competitiveness in the tourism industry.

User-Generated Content as a Brand Image Builder: An Explanatory Study on Instagram's JackArmy Fashion Brand Image

User-Generated Content as a Brand Image Builder: An Explanatory Study on Instagram's JackArmy Fashion Brand Image

The influence of social media content on attitude, destination image and intention of female Muslim travelers to visit halal destinations: comparison between UGC and FGC

Purpose This study aims to investigate how user-generated content (UGC) and firm-generated content (FGC) in social media affect attitudes toward halal tourism destinations, destination image and visit intentions among female Muslim (Muslimah) travelers. It also examines the role of travel habits as the moderating variable. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts the Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (TIB) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the motivation of Muslimah travelers to visit halal destinations. The survey was completed by 284 Indonesian Muslimah respondents who had visited halal tourism destinations in Indonesia. The SEM-PLS statistical technique was used to verify the associations between variables. Findings This study’s findings offer valuable insights for both theoretical understanding and practical applications. They suggest that both UGC and FGC significantly predict attitudes toward halal tourism and destination image, thereby influencing the visiting intentions of Muslimah travelers. Although UGC does not directly influence visiting intentions, it does play a significant role in shaping visiting intentions through its mediating effect on attitudes toward halal tourism destinations. In addition, the results indicate that habit positively moderates the relationship between attitudes toward halal tourism and visiting intentions. Originality/value This research contributes uniquely and significantly in two aspects. First, it merges the TIB with the TPB to elucidate the decision-making process of Muslimah travelers when selecting halal destinations. This integration illuminates new insights into the intentions of Muslimah tourists. Second, this study examines the respective influences of UGC and FGC on the visiting intentions of Muslimah travelers to halal tourism destinations. By comparing UGC and FGC, the research provides valuable insights into the decision-making processes of Muslimah tourists. Given Indonesia’s status as home to the largest Muslim population globally, this study offers a novel perspective on the traveling behavior of Muslimahs and practical recommendations for the Indonesian tourism sector in the establishment and promotion of Muslim-friendly destinations within the country.

Sustainable Brand Resilience: Mitigating Panic Buying through Brand Value and Food Waste Attitudes Amid Social Media Misinformation

This study investigates the relationship between user-generated content on social media and panic buying, with a focus on how attitudes towards food waste and brand value act as moderating variables. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), data from an online survey with 370 responses were analyzed. The findings show that user-generated content significantly contributes to the dissemination of inaccurate information, which in turn triggers panic buying. However, the impact of inaccurate information on panic buying is moderated by consumer attitudes towards food waste and brand value. Specifically, consumers with negative attitudes towards food waste and high brand trust are less likely to engage in panic buying when exposed to misinformation. These results suggest that promoting responsible consumption and leveraging brand value can mitigate the adverse effects of misinformation during crises. This study contributes to sustainability by providing insights into developing strategies for retailers and policymakers to manage consumer behavior, emphasizing the importance of accurate information and brand communication in reducing panic buying tendencies.

Satisfaction and sustainability concerns in whale-watching tourism: A user-generated content model

This study examines the satisfaction and sustainability concerns of whale-watching tourists by analysing user-generated content (UGC) on social media. A satisfaction model was developed and estimated utilising an ordered probit analysis with UGC data from TripAdvisor over the last 13 years that includes a specific whale-watching lexicon. The model addresses most of the physical, human, environmental, experiential, and operational aspects of the activity, including consumers’ feelings and sustainability concerns. The significance of the variables in the model was proven with the available empirical data. The findings provide a comprehensive description of the underpinnings of whale watchers’ preferences and concerns. The evidence reveals compelling social trends towards higher sustainability concerns influencing satisfaction, providing valuable information for the industry and its decision-makers for understanding preferences for sustainability in whale-watching tourism.

A blockchain-based platform for incentivizing customer reviews in the grocery industry

Nowadays, user-generated content is pivotal for many companies: people trust other customers' opinions more than any brand advertisement. Brands are aware of this and try to promote and motivate their customers to create high-quality content. However, this way of operating is still at an early stage: there is a lack of fairness, as companies typically do not provide a validation system, or if they do, it is not based on a transparent solution, and often there is no reward for creating unique and high-quality content. In this paper, we focus on the problem of incentivizing the user's creation of content in the form of customer reviews in the online grocery industry. Specifically, we illustrate the solution to the problem devised in the Re-Taled project by relying on blockchain technology. We developed a decentralized ecosystem of consumers, influencers, and manufacturers, where content creators are rewarded for their contribution according to a framework that provides incentives in the form of both reputation and monetization. Blockchain technology is used to certify the content's authenticity and compensate content creators with a cryptographic token. We illustrate the technical choices of the solution together with its software architecture and implemented platform. In particular, we introduce the framework used to validate the trustworthiness of user-generated content and favor fairness and transparency within the platform.

Creating Emordle: Animating Word Cloud for Emotion Expression.

We propose emordle, a conceptual design that animates wordles (compact word clouds) to deliver their emotional context to audiences. To inform the design, we first reviewed online examples of animated texts and animated wordles, and summarized strategies for injecting emotion into the animations. We introduced a composite approach that extends an existing animation scheme for one word to multiple words in a wordle with two global factors: the randomness of text animation (entropy) and the animation speed (speed). To create an emordle, general users can choose one predefined animated scheme that matches the intended emotion class and fine-tune the emotion intensity with the two parameters. We designed proof-of-concept emordle examples for four basic emotion classes, namely happiness, sadness, anger, and fear. We conducted two controlled crowdsourcing studies to evaluate our approach. The first study confirmed that people generally agreed on the conveyed emotions from well-crafted animations, and the second one demonstrated that our identified factors helped fine-tune the extent of the emotion delivered. We also invited general users to create their own emordles based on our proposed framework. Through this user study, we confirmed the effectiveness of the approach. We concluded with implications for future research opportunities of supporting emotion expression in visualizations.

Firm’s Online Controversial Events: How User-Generated Content Affects Consumer Engagement

Firm’s Online Controversial Events: How User-Generated Content Affects Consumer Engagement

Caching User-Generated Content in Distributed Autonomous Networks via Contextual Bandit

Caching User-Generated Content in Distributed Autonomous Networks via Contextual Bandit

Customers’ emotional impact on star rating and thumbs-up behavior towards food delivery service Apps

This study explores the intricate relationship between emotional cues present in food delivery app reviews, normative ratings, and reader engagement. Utilizing lexicon-based unsupervised machine learning, our aim is to identify eight distinct emotional states within user reviews sourced from the Google Play Store. Our primary goal is to understand how reviewer star ratings impact reader engagement, particularly through thumbs-up reactions. By analyzing the influence of emotional expressions in user-generated content on review scores and subsequent reader engagement, we seek to provide insights into their complex interplay. Our methodology employs advanced machine learning techniques to uncover subtle emotional nuances within user-generated content, offering novel insights into their relationship. The findings reveal an inverse correlation between review length and positive sentiment, emphasizing the importance of concise feedback. Additionally, the study highlights the differential impact of emotional tones on review scores and reader engagement metrics. Surprisingly, user-assigned ratings negatively affect reader engagement, suggesting potential disparities between perceived quality and reader preferences. In summary, this study pioneers the use of advanced machine learning techniques to unravel the complex relationship between emotional cues in customer evaluations, normative ratings, and subsequent reader engagement within the food delivery app context.

Sustainable Body Positivity Movement: Analysis of the Discourse on Body Image in Korean Society

In contemporary society, the discourse on body image is increasingly emerging as a notable social issue. In particular, the body positivity movement is promoting healthy body image and self-esteem through various means. This study was conducted to analyze the discourse on sustainable body image in Korean society. User-generated content from 1 January 2014 to 31 July 2023 underwent data refinement and term frequency (TF), TF–inverse document frequency (TF–IDF), and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) analyses. The number of blog posts in 2020 was nearly triple the number in 2019. Thus, the analysis period was divided into first (from 2014 to 2019) and second (from 2020 to 31 July 2023) periods. The TF–IDF analysis showed that shooting, photo, diet, exercise, goal, and challenge were among the top words in the first period, while Instagram-related words were mosr frequent in the second period. This finding suggested that social distancing policies significantly affected social media usage. The LDA analysis revealed five topics that were common in the first and second periods and three topics that emerged in the second period. Overall, while Western societies tend to idealize specific body types, body image discourse in Korea is centered around exercise as a means to achieve “photography” or “photo shoot”-related goals. Exercise is perceived as an activity performed for pleasure rather than attaining a particular body shape. Furthermore, there is a desire to document one’s body beautifully and maintain exercise habits in the long run. The results of this study could serve as foundational material for establishing and sustaining a positive body image culture.

Understanding Components of The Memorable Ethnic Food Experience: A Case of Turkish Cuisine in London

The primary goal of this study is to understand the memorable ethnic food experience of Turkish cuisine in London. To achieve the aim of the study, netnography approach, which is a qualitative study method, was used to ascertain the components of the memorable ethnic food experience via the User-Generated Content (UGC) technique. The data was garnered via TripAdvisor from consumers’ reviews posted regarding their food experience of Turkish food (n: 2324). The findings of this study posed that the memorable ethnic food experience has five main components: hospitality and social interaction, taste, and food characteristics, servicescape, authenticity, satisfaction, recommendation, and revisit intentions. The results of this study allow service providers to create a framework of memorable ethnic food experience design by focusing on components identified in the present work. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of memorable ethnic food experiences. Because of its original contributions, this study extends the food experience literature by providing original findings

Unveiling the Nexus of Distribution Personalization and Content Decentralization: Exploring Brand Recall among Gen Z in Region III, Philippines

The study emphasized the pivotal role of distribution personalization, mediated by content decentralization, in influencing brand recall among Gen Z consumers, highlighting the importance of advanced data analytics, optimized distribution channels, user-generated content incorporation, and user-centric storytelling for effective brand engagement in the modern market. This research studied the effects of distribution personalization and content decentralization on brand recall among Gen-Z, focusing on causal relationship and the issue of attention competition. It used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling to analyze 385 responses from Region III, Philippines Gen Z participants. The results indicate that personalized distribution has direct influence on brand recall through an ability to remember brand features amid consumer attention competition. Content decentralization partially mediates this effect, suggesting challenges in maintaining consistent brand identity across diverse platforms. The research underscores the importance of distribution personalization in brand recall, highlighting how content decentralization and variety of content across platforms can dilute brand consistency and hinder Gen Z's brand recall. These suggest centralizing content from a single source to ensure uniformity in branding while also using advanced analytics for targeted personalization. The study recommends optimizing distribution channels and incorporating user-centric storytelling to enhance brand association. Researchers need to continuously analyze consumer trends and feedback to refine distribution personalization strategies and stay responsive to changing market conditions. Content decentralization makes it difficult to reach and engage with the entire audience effectively, as they may be spread out across numerous channels, thus future researchers may look into this aspect.

Customer value co-destruction behaviors in smart service encounters: Scale development and cross-cultural validation

With the increasing presence of smart services in the servicescape, customers’ actions have become the foundation of the value formation process, which can either significantly foster or hinder it. This paper presents the development and validation of a customer value co-destruction behavior scale designed to assess customer behaviors that impede resource integration and lead to resource misuse within smart service encounters. Grounded in service-dominant logic, we employed both deductive and inductive approaches to develop the preliminary items, which were drawn from existing works on co-destruction and user-generated content (UGC). These items underwent purification and validation across four different samples from China and the United States. The final scale has a two-dimensional structure with 14 items: eight items for resource non-integration behavior and six items for resource misintegration behavior. The results confirm its reliability, validity, and measurement invariance across cultures. By providing an effective measurement instrument, the research empowers researchers and practitioners to investigate customer value co-destruction behavior in the smart services arena, enabling cross-cultural research and granting deeper insights into nuanced marketing strategies.

The Impact of User-Generated Content and Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Purchase Intention: Consumer Engagement as a Mediator

The Impact of User-Generated Content and Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Purchase Intention: Consumer Engagement as a Mediator

Why do consumers buy sports NFTs? – decoding consumer values and needs driving purchase intention

PurposeOver the past years, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have sparked growing interest in the sport industry. NFTs are unique digital assets verified using blockchain technology. Each NFT has a distinct identifier that sets it apart from other tokens, documenting its uniqueness and ownership. NFTs promise innovative growth opportunities by generating revenue via novel products such as digital collectibles which can be owned and traded on dedicated platforms. Despite this promising outlook, it currently seems unclear how sports NFTs should be designed and which features they should offer to align with consumer values, effectively meet their needs and ultimately drive Purchase Intention. This study will therefore attempt to answer the following research question: Which consumer values and consumer needs have a positive impact on PI of sports NFTs? Based on the results, the study seeks to offer advice on concrete characteristics sports NFTs should possess in order to foster mainstream adoption.Design/methodology/approachTo address the current gap in the literature and provide an answer to the research question, this paper uses structural equation modelling exploring the impact of consumer values and consumer needs or wants on purchase intention regarding sports NFTs.FindingsThe results of this study indicate that social needs or wants (SNW) have the strongest impact on purchase intention, as well as on experiential and functional needs or wants. NFTs should therefore possess characteristics that foster community, interaction and connection with other team or athlete supporters while enhancing the overall consumer experience. Incorporating these elements into future NFTs can help sports organizations tap into the social SNW of consumers by providing opportunities for connection, interaction and collective experiences within supporter communities.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the low response rate of Baby Boomers, the results of the study cannot be applied to this cohort. Additional research, potentially using physical in-stadium surveys and targeted specifically at the BB cohort may shed light on their particular values, needs or wants and impact on sports NFT purchase intention. Moreover, Generation Z respondents may statistically be underrepresented in the sample due to the fact that only respondents aged 18 and older were included in the study. Hence, the part of Generation Z, which was born after March 2006 and had not yet come of age at the time of this research, was explicitly excluded from the survey. Results should be applied carefully to the population of sports team or athlete supporters due to the method of data collection which was based on convenience sampling and may therefore not be representative. Since the survey was exclusively administered online, people with no Internet access are not represented in this research.Practical implicationsSports organizations and marketers can leverage the strong impact of SNW identified in this study to position their NFT portfolio accordingly. Using athletes themselves or other influencers as product ambassadors may trigger purchase intention of consumers. Additionally, it is crucial that socializing agents, such as family, friends, colleagues and other team supporters with a strong influence on consumers own or promote NFTs. Marketers can support this adoption process by encouraging testimonials, reviews and user-generated content that showcase how NFTs have positively impacted others. Reaching a critical mass of adoption among supporters as a first step will ultimately impact consumers’ desire to satisfy ENW and FNW as well. Consumers may then recognize the benefits of using NFTs to enhance their overall consumer experience and to make their lives easier, for instance by using NFTs as season tickets or to collect loyalty points they can redeem later.Originality/valueThis study is the first attempt to determine the relationship between consumer values, consumers’ needs or wants and their impact on purchase intention regarding sports NFTs.

Leveraging Social Media Marketing: A Case Study of Starbucks Digital Success

With the development of communication technologies like social media, consumption has fundamentally changed. This study examines the impact of the digital and social environment on consumer behavior and business practices by analyzing Starbucks successful practices in social media marketing. The study finds that Starbucks has effectively increased brand awareness and customer engagement on major social platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook through high-quality content marketing, collaborations with online celebrities and active user engagement strategies. Starbucks communicates brand values through visual storytelling and builds a strong customer community with user-generated content and interactive activities. The findings suggest that companies in the retail and restaurant industries can learn from Starbucks experience to enhance emotional connections with customers and brand loyalty by maintaining transparency, building communities, collaborating with web admins, and creating visual content. This study is an important reference for industry practices, emphasizing the importance of continuous innovation in the rapidly changing social media landscape.

The Impact of SHEINs Content Marketing on Consumer Perceptions in the Digital Marketing Process

With the rapid development of the Internet and digital technology, content marketing strategy has become increasingly important in the field of digital marketing. However, there is insufficient research on how a brands digital content marketing affects consumers purchase intention, especially among emerging brands. In this study, the SHEIN brand was used as a reference. Through a comprehensive literature review and in-depth case analysis, this research systematically explores its core digital content marketing strategy and reveals the core elements of its success. The research results show that SHEINs user-generated content (UGC) strategy in digital content marketing, especially social media marketing, encourages consumers to independently shoot and write SHEIN product content, thereby increasing new consumers product recognition and thus influencing consumers purchases. This strategy not only deepens consumers' positive impression and awareness of the SHEIN brand but also significantly enhances their purchase intentions. Through this analysis, brands can effectively attract and retain customers by articulating their core values and developing precise digital content marketing strategies accordingly. This research provides valuable insights into how brands can build and implement effective content marketing strategies in the digital age, especially in terms of how to attract and retain younger consumers. At the same time, the companies should also realize that with the continuous advancement of technology, future digital content marketing strategies will continue to evolve, and brands need to maintain keen insights and constantly adapt to new market environments and consumer needs.